The face of Dominion

Lots of our friends play Dominion, so while we don't own the game ourselves (no need—everybody we would play with already has it!), we still felt qualified to recommend it to my sister and brother-in-law.

This, apparently, is the face you make when you're waiting nervously for your next turn, hoping that the strategy you've chosen is going to secure your dominance!

For a review of rules and game play, read my friend Mike's review of Dominion for AnnArbor.com. What follows is my own lessons learned and advice:

• Unless you're good at card counting, the eventual winner may surprise you, especially when it's you and you've been whining all game about how your strategy isn't working.
• When in doubt, buy a Village or a Market. Don't bother buying actions you're a little foggy on how to use until you figure out how to incorporate it into your strategy.
• Your friends aren't going to like it when you Throne Room (multiplier card) a Witch (curse card), but tell them to take heart because there are a finite number of curse cards available, and the stack will be depleted soon enough.
• If you want the game to go faster, learn to shuffle quickly—you often have to shuffle mid-turn.
• Duchy cards are only worth 3 victory points, but Duchies add up. Speaking of Duchies, that word is unfamiliar to a lot of people before playing, and there is sometimes debate on how to pronounce it. To clear all this up, keep this dictionary.com audio pronunciation clip on hand (it's available in the phone app). "mmDuh-chee". In the game with my sister and brother-in-law, I took to playing it every time someone bought one, just for fun.